The Towering Inferno (Special Edition)

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Newman and McQueen divert this flick from being a total disaster.

By Todd Gilchrist

Is there any cooler person who ever lived than Steve McQueen? Well, maybe Paul Newman. Okay, okay, they're the same level of coolness - at least for the purposes of this review. Because the two make a surprisingly compelling pair in The Towering Inferno, a movie which, quite frankly, does not deserve their collective cool. In fact, they provide the absolute best moment of this classic disaster pic, and suggest that there was in fact not a time, even in the 1970s, that bastion of cinematic credibility, that actors and filmmakers were willing to join a production just for the sake of making a few extra bucks.

The Towering Inferno pre-dates the era in which, at least marginally, these marquee pictures observed some semblance of credulity; there are many legitimate reasons why architects and builders condemned the film (no pun intended) for its melodramatic depiction of a high-rise's explosive immolation. Newman stars as Doug Roberts, the architect of a record-setting skyscraper who, despite his reservations about on-the-cheap construction and faulty wiring, finds himself at the mercy of his bottom-lining boss James Duncan (William Holden). When a power overload sets a pile of oily rags ablaze and knocks out the sprinkler system, it's only a matter of time before the fire spreads. Unfortunately, the flame-out coincides with an opening-night party attended by Roberts' girlfriend Susan Franklin (Faye Dunaway), Duncan's daughter Patty (Susan Blakely) and a host of other San Francisco celebrities and socialites. Fire Chief Michael O'Hallorhan (McQueen) is called in to suppress the flames, but they quickly spread to several floors, killing dozens of firefighters, building employees and residents. As the situation worsens, Roberts and O'Hallorhan must work together to contain the fires before they reach the partygoers; with but one explosive and potentially devastating option left, the pair decided to blow up water tanks on the roof in the hopes that the ensuing flood with snuff out the fire and save the building's inhabitants before they die fiery deaths.

I was immediately reminded of two different - and differently important - points of pop cultural reference while watching this film again: the World Trade Towers, and The Simpsons. The former's relevance is hopefully obvious, but the latter is significant as a chronicler of cinematic cliché - in particular, in the episode entitled "Itchy & Scratchy Land." The Towering Inferno is the kind of movie that would shamelessly assert "nothing could possibly go wrong!" immediately prior to the destruction and dismemberment of its ensemble cast, and then take enough dramatic liberties with the actualities of a high-rise fire that the story crosses quickly from mortal danger into mortal melodrama. There are so many perfectly-timed explosions and 'dramatic' narrative crescendos that the whole affair achieves a singular tone from start to finish - namely that of boredom.The actors, meanwhile, are somewhat clearly going through the motions of their respective roles (consider this the Ocean's Eleven of its day): Newman is game for just about anything, but seems relatively underwhelmed by the possibility his girlfriend could go up in flames; ditto McQueen, who perhaps wisely took the nobler role a Fire Chief and spends most of his time barking orders at extras. Holden and Dunaway, meanwhile, were two years away from far better work in Network, and mostly offer concerned or repentant looks as unwitting victims of Duncan's penny-pinching. Ironically, Fred Astaire netted and Oscar nomination for his turn as a slick con man, but is about as convincing as a hustler as he would have been as heavyweight champion.

Ultimately, there's a lot of entertainment to be found in the film - McQueen's absurd rescue of a dangling elevator car provides the biggest moment of suspense - but its weaknesses are not merely technical (like, say, an obvious fireproofed double diving out a window in place of Susan Flannery). Rather, like 'the Glass Tower' itself, they are structural; at 162 minutes the movie is just too long, and does not generate enough suspense based on simple logic (much less self-preservation) to keep the audience's sympathies (why, for example, are two children and their deaf mother sleeping in three separate rooms without acknowledging one another once the entire apartment is filled with smoke?).But even with the benefit of hindsight, hundreds of documentaries about fires and death and destruction, and more than a few recent history lessons telling us otherwise, The Towering Inferno is still a compelling yarn. Just be aware that like many of the characters, sets and story lines chronicled in the film, your suspension of disbelief will similarly go up in smoke while you're watching it.Score: 7 out of 10

The VideoThe Towering Inferno is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) preserving the aspect ratio of the original theatrical exhibition. For a 30-plus year-old film, it looks great: matte lines and other such old-school effects techniques reveal themselves only occasionally, while the overall quality, clarity and depth of color (particularly blacks and reds) is vibrant. Additionally, the fire registers extremely well (a departure from many other lackluster transfers); while of course this is virtually the film's raison d'etre, the juxtaposition of dark and light is strong and clear, ensuring that modern audiences can interact with and respond to the images as if they were new.Score: 9 out of 10